#writing #fiction
Rope Hero: A Tragedy
Introduction
Note 02/26/2026: This story is particularly crude. In some ways that is fitting: It’s a Spiderman Noir fanfiction type story that’s modelled off of comic book–action movie cliches. The dialogue is on the nose and about as unsubtle as the title, the violence is gory and visceral, and the women in the story exist mostly as motivating desires for the (male) protagonists. It has plenty of spelling errors and egregious references to other stories—Truthfully I don’t even know why I wrote this. Maybe I just had enough motivation to expand upon a silly idea and got lucky that it lasted long enough to actually finish it.
I made a bunch of little fan fiction type stories like this, one of which is far too crude to post here (Though in a way, I am actually quite proud of it. If you know me personally, you probably know which one I’m talking about). But I hope you enjoy.
Table of contents
Chapter 1.
Jensen walked into a bar off main street. It was a quaint little place, reminiscent of a pub one might find down a stairwell on the streets of london. A perfect place to head into on a rainy afternoon. It stood in particular contrast to the massive skyscrapers that towered over the little bar. Its warm inviting interior was in stark contrast to the cold concrete corridors that snaked around the city, harboring the worst the city had to offer, as well as those just down on their luck. Jensen entered the bar, a bell jingling to announce his entrance, to which several patrons shouted a hurrah, and returned to their bar-like activities. Jensen took his place at the bar on a stool, the chair squealed a little bit.
“What’ll it be Jen?” A bartender said. She already knew the answer to the question, but she liked to humor herself. Jensen was a regular at her bar, coming in at the end of every day to drown himself in the cheapest shit in the city like everyone else. He was different though. Even though he didn’t talk much and didn’t even know her name, she was probably the closest person to Jensen on the planet. He didn’t have any kids or a wife, didn’t even know his mom and got out from his deadbeat alcoholic dead as soon as he was 18. Moved to Gangstar City and became a detective, where he learned to despise the denizens he was sworn to protect. In this job he’d seen the worst of it. Couples fighting tooth and nail over small amounts of debt; usually due drug problems, People gunned down in the streets left to bake in the hot sun; in this job, Jensen saw the worst humans were capable of. Of course she didn’t know any of this, she just poured the drinks. She could just see it in his eyes.
“Whatevers cheapest and gets me the drunkest”. Jensen spat out, without looking up from a particularly interesting smudge on the counter. She smirked, looking down to herself, and grabbed a glass out from under the counter and cleaned it with a damp rag, then filled it with ice and finally a cheap malt whiskey. Jensen eyed it regretfully. He took a large swig, taking half the glass down his gullet without so much of a wince–It would take a lot more of those to get Jensen to forget his daily toils. He watched the gold liquid swish around in his glass, the ice cubes clinking against the glass in a dull fashion, and the bartender used this as an opportunity to engage in conversation.
“So Jensen, you got any plans tonight or anything?” She said with dutiful composure, hiding her active interest under the guise of bartenderly conduct.
“Nope, same as every day” He coughed, “Prolly’ just head home after this and drown myself in more alcohol, more meaning in the bottom of the bottle than anything in this disgrace of a city” He spat on the floor in distaste.
The bartender hid her shock, trying to change the subject. She pointed to the tv overhead. “Oh hey look! Did you hear? The mayor’s to give the keys to the city to Rope Hero for service to the city.”
Jensen leaned back on his stool, as far back as one can on a stool, and smiled as if remembering an old friend fondly. “Rope Hero” he muttered to himself. Rope Hero was the vigilante of Gangstar City. Swinging from rope to rope and catching criminals like some sort of super hero or something. Nobody knew anything about him, the police, press, and various crime syndicates had been trying to nail him for years, but to no avail. He was like pure justice in the form of a man, purely invisible below the mask. Jensen didn’t know why the police didn’t like Rope Hero. Sure he didn’t do his paperwork, but he did over fifty percent of the detaining the precinct took claim for. This city would be a lot dirtier without Rope Hero, and Jensen admired him for that. In Jensen’s eyes, he fought for justice in a completely selfless manner, a beacon of any hope there might still be for humanity’s altruism and pure goodness.
Jensen smiled for the first time in awhile. “Sure I’ll watch, turn it on”. He turned in his chair towards the tv, sipping his whiskey slowly without the vexation of before. She flipped to the channel.
A news reporter blared through the tv. “I’m Martha Dewallis from Channel 6 news, here with you live at city hall where the mayor plans to award rope hero the keys to the city, the first time they will ever be officially thanked for their unrepayable service to Gangstar City.” The crowd burst into energy and started clapping, triggering the news reporter to spin around. “And here we are folks! Here comes Rope Hero!” The camera zooms in to follow a red and blue blur as it swings like a monkey towards the center stage where the mayor stands. The crowd erupts into even more excitement as they start chanting his name, a band starts playing a celebratory theme. With a few acrobatic flips Rope Hero lands on the stage, red and blue confetti shooting up into the air to adorn the occasion.
The reporter stands half in frame silent as the camera zooms in closer on Rope Hero. He makes his way over to the mayor, waving at the thousands of adoring fans who cover the entire streets.
Finally Rope Hero reaches the mayor and the crowd quiets down, anticipating his next move. The mayor outstretches his hand with a smile, his suit covered in still falling red and blue confetti. Rope Hero stands motionless, and then quickly pulls in the mayor to an embrace, whispering, “I’m so sorry.” A silenced shot is heard coming from Rope Hero, and the mayor stumbles backwards, clutching his stomach. The crowd remains motionless, their shock to what has just happened paralyzing them in fear. The mayor, continuing to clutch his now bleeding stomach, falls to the floor. Rope Hero walks closer to the mayor and pulls out a suppressed pistol, of which he fires two more shots into the mayor’s now lifeless body.
“He’s got a gun! Code 4, I repeat code 4! Rope Hero has gone rogue!” The bodyguards of the mayor are the first to actualize the disturbance. Before they can get on stage, Rope Hero is already gone. The crowd soon delves into chaos, screaming drowns out the orders of the police on scene to calm down, and they trample over each other to get away from the stage.
“Uh, I don’t, do we keep filming? Uh, T-This just in! It would appear Rope Hero, previously the city’s protector, has just assassinated the mayor at his own ceremony! It’s fucking chaos down here! Mark, cut the camera stop fil-” The camera cuts out and the tv goes to static. Both Jensen and the Bartender, as well as everyone else in the bar go silent.
The bartender is the first one to speak up. “I uh, what was that?” She begins unravelling the all too recent events with several patrons, all equally as confused. Random tidbits of conversation ring out into Jensen’s mind. “What happens now?”
“I don’t know”
“Will we be okay?”
“I- it’s too early to say. I just don’t know”
Jensen remains motionless, staring at the now off tv screen as if possessed by an apparition of sorts. The bartender reaches out in consideration. “Hey Jensen are you alright?” He bats off her hand without the usual hostility, which if anything worries her more.
“I’m fine.” He mutters “I, I think I need to go home.” With that he gets up and walks out the door, never taking his eyes off the floor.
Chapter 2.
Jensen walked down the streets, the clouds had parted and the rain had stopped. One might expect the rain to wash the filth off the streets, but it only caused it to rise up out of the storm drains and fester, stagnating on the already decrepit city streets. A convoy of cop cars flew past Jensen, his coat flinging out in random directions controlled by the wind, but Jensen only focused on the cracks on the sidewalk as he walked towards his apartment. The city was clearly in distress, it was trying to process what had just happened just as much as Jensen was. People were hurrying inside and running, helicopters blaring orders were flying through the gaps in the buildings, and looters got ready to start breaking into homes and businesses. Jensen was powerless to stop it now, and with Rope Hero gone, who could?
He walked up some concrete steps to an apartment building off the road. The lobby was nothing more than a broken window which let in some light onto the industrial floors, with rotten wallpaper peeling onto seats along the walls which had to have been there since the mid 80’s. The lobby did nothing if not to remind him how poor he was, and how this was the best he could afford. He longed to move to some cabin in the woods somewhere, wake up to fresh coffee and a view of the mountains. He longed to escape the life of this concrete jungle. He made his way up the stairs, ignoring the elevator which hadn’t worked in centuries, and made his way to the third floor which housed his apartment. On the way he passed his landlady, who stared at him with an expectant snark. Tapping her foot as a teacher would do to a misbehaving student. “Well well, if it isn’t Jensen” She said in between drags of a cigarette. “You got my money yet? You’re 30 days late on rent.”
Jensen tried to push her aside, but she placed herself infront of him. “I’ll have it, I just need a little more time.” He tried to squeeze past her, but she knocked him back down the stairs. She was a short old lady, but looks tended to be deceiving.
“You better, one more week and I’m breaking down that door and moving you myself”.
He smiled. “You got it mah’” He almost patted her on the head, but feigned doing so in case she backed up those claims, and made his way to his apartment.
He fumbled with the door for a minute and finally got the key right and entered. The apartment was more of a studio, with a bathroom and a living room, which doubled as a bedroom. Dirty clothes and beer cans littered the floor, but Jensen didn’t care much, he hadn’t had visitors since forever. He hung up his hat and coat, typical detective attire, and laid his gun and badge on a counter covered in various trash. Beer cans and crumpled receipts hit the floor as he made room for his possessions. Now much less encumbered, he grabbed a bottle of booze from his bedside table and downed a few gulps, before wiping his mouth and sitting down on his bed to recoup. He grabbed the remote from under his covers and flipped on the tv.
Jensen was depressed to see the state of the city Rope Hero had put the city in. It was utter chaos. The police were understaffed and without Rope Hero, career criminals and opportunists alike used the opportunity to rob, steal, and murder at rates predicted to be worse than they had ever been, even before Rope Hero’s appearance. Jensen couldn’t understand it. Why? Just why? Why would Rope Hero, who had been so pure, suddenly decide to murder the mayor and cause so much chaos? No matter how he tried to look at it, it just didn’t make any sense.
Jensen set down his drink and began to think more seriously. He had to get to the bottom of this incident. If he didn’t, it would eat at him forever. Luckily this type of investigative work was Jensen’s expertise, being a detective and all. First thing tomorrow he would look into the police files for everything they knew about Rope Hero.
The next day was just as terrible as the day before. The city was still very much in turmoil, and as Jensen pulled into the police headquarters, a visible mob was crowding around the entrance. “They must be just as confused as we are.” he thought to himself. “Probably best to not wrile up the crowd” He decided, entering through a backdoor in the parking garage.
The inside of the building was just as hectic as outside. Officers rushed all over the building, dispatch callers were arguing over the phones and between each other as they struggled to keep up with the surge in demand for emergency services. The ground was littered with papers and other debris. Jensen had never seen anything quite like it. He made it past the droves of confusion and chaos and slunk into the Commissioner’s office.
Jensen closed the door behind him and silence overtook him, the room was dark due to all the blinds being shut, save for a tv playing a news station at a low volume in the corner of the room. The commissioner was on a phone call in his chair with his feet up on the desk, He mouthed “One second” to Jensen and then turned away, sticking his hand up in the air to motion a one. For all the absurdity outside, Jensen thought, the commissioner seemed awfully calm. Finally the commissioner hung up the phone. “Say Jensen, where were yah? We tried to call you this morning”
“Yea sorry boss, I had some trouble getting in” Jensen pulled up the blinds a slight bit and viewed the crowd outside, which was very quickly turning into a mob.
The commissioner leaned back in his chair “Yea I believe you, shit has really hit the fan.” He grabbed a bottle off a counter behind him. “You want a drink?”
Jensen gestured against. “I don’t drink during work sir. Actually I came in to ask you about something.”
The commissioner finished pouring his drink and then looked up expectantly. “Ask away.”
“I want to reopen the Rope Hero case. Something about this doesn’t add up.”
The commissioner nearly spat out his drink. “What? No way, in the state this city is in? We need you in the field jensen.”
“But sir, he caused this whole mess? Don’t you think we should deal with him? Do something?”
The commissioner sighed. “Jensen you don’t think I haven’t thought about that? Tried to nag that guy? Jen I’ve been trying to get Rope Hero for half my career! We couldn’t get him when he was helping us, we certainly couldn’t get him now.” He got out of his chair and stared at the window as if concentrating hard. “I’m sorry Jen, I know how much this means to you, but we have bigger, more immediate problems.”
Jensen wanted to object, but he knew it was futile. “Very well sir. I’ll get out of here for you.” He turned to leave out the door, the room once again filling with the commotion of the offices outside as he opened the door askew.
“Jensen, wait, one more thing.”
He turned around “Yes Sir?”
“Don’t do anything stupid, you might not like what you find.”
Jensen respected his boss and he respected his job even more, but he had a calling he could not ignore. He had to get to the bottom of the Rope Hero case, even if he didn’t have the go ahead from his boss.
Jensen took the elevator down two floors to the evidence room, where they kept the files to every case, closed or on going. He accidentally shoved someone on the way there and lost his balance. “Hey sorry man” Jensen turned around with a friendly smile but was shot down by the man’s angry glare. He was wearing a black leather jacket and sunglasses, and he had a very distinct tattoo that Jensen immediately noticed on his face. This guy didn’t seem like the guy you wanted on your bad side.
“watch where you’re fucking going buddy” The man said, continuing to walk towards the elevator without turning around.
Jensen ignored this interaction and made his way to the counter, where a lady organizing papers came to his attention. “Can I help you?” She clamoured, not taking her eyes off the papers she was organizing.
“Yea, I’d like to see the Rope Hero case.” Jensen said.
She pointed behind her. “It’s right through there, aisle 4.”
Jensen moved past the counter and scoured the aisle for the file. Finally working his way through the O’s P’s Q’s (of which there weren’t many) and finally the R’s. “No no, it should be right here” Jensen said, bending down to look closer. He rummaged through the files around where the Rope Hero file should be. “It should be right here!” Jensen shot up. “Excuse me ma’am, who was the last person to check out these files?”
The lady turned around. “That would actually be that gentleman right there” She pointed at the bald man with the face tattoo. He turned around with a surprised expression which turned to anger and he began sprinting up the stairs, ignoring the elevator.
“Stop that man!” Jensen screamed and ran after him. He vaulted the counter gracefully, spilling books all over the floor, and chased the man into the stairwell. They both ran as fast as they could ascending until they got to the main floor, where the man bashed through the door haphazardly and made a break for the exit. Jensen followed in close pursuit, chasing him down the hallway.
The man unholstered a pistol from his belt and fired blindly behind him, striking a woman in the arm and another shot hitting the floor near Jen. The crowd began to react similarly to the one at the ceremony, fit with screaming and running alike. Jensen didn’t let the distraction get the better of him and kept his chase, knocking over a woman and almost tripping but never breaking his stride.
The man barged through a fire exit door, placing him in an alleyway. Jensen left the chaos of the precinct and ran after him. The second Jen pushed through the door he ducked instinctively, three shots pinging off of the door. Jensen returned fire which caused the man to break into a sprint again. Jensen chased him through the labyrinth like alleyways, dodging piles of trash and sleeping vagrants as he ran. The man once again turned around and fired off 4 shots, Jensen narrowly avoiding them by hiding behind a trashcan. With the break in the volley, Jensen got up and fired one bullet, hitting the man in the shoulder, causing him to drop his gun. “Gah!” he screamed, running down another alley.
Jensen cornered him at a dead end, nowhere to go. He raised his pistol “C’mon man, you’ve lost. Tell me why you were in there, what did you do with the evidence?”
The man faced away from Jensen, looking for a ladder or something to appear, but didn’t find anything. He turned around and looked at Jen, still clutching his bloody shoulder. “Let me go, do you have any idea who I am? Who you are messing with? I pay your fucking salary man!”
Jensen straightened his aim. “Save it, now get on the floor, let me cuff you, no tricks” Jensen removed some handcuffs from his back pocket and made his steps closer to the man.
The man did as Jen told and got on the floor, but he didn’t so much as lay down as crumple. It was immediately clear to Jensen something wasn’t right. He rushed over to the man and turned him over. The man was shaking like he was having a seizure and was foaming at the mouth profusely.
“Shit. cyanide capsule.” Jen lay motionless next to the body for a moment, gun still in hand, feeling defeated. What leads did he have now? Jensen only felt more confused now than he did before. He could hear footsteps behind him, likely fellow officers coming to secure the scene. Just then Jensen noticed something shiny glint under his jacket. Jensen moved it aside and saw what it was.
A jade necklace was hanging from a pocket on the inside of the jacket. It was golden, with a platinum material etched into marvellous patterns surrounding the gemstone. It was a beautiful necklace, likely a womans. Which begged the question, why did this guy have it? Jensen grabbed it and put it in his pocket for later. As he did, the chain of the necklace pulled something else out of the pocket and a white piece of paper fell to the floor. Jensen picked it up and flipped it over. It was a picture of a woman, likely taken on a polaroid. She had to be mid thirties or forties, although it was hard to tell. She was beaten up pretty bad, likely tortured, and she was covered in blood and bruises. Jensen also noticed she was wearing the necklace in the photo that he now held in his hand. Somehow, they were connected.
At that moment the police finally arrived on the scene. “Area’s all clear sir.” Three police officers aimed their weapons on the crime scene and lowered them upon seeing only Jensen and the neutralized criminal. The Commissioner walked out from behind the corner of an alley. “Jensen! Jesus! Are you alright?”
Jensen stood up and wiped some sweat from his forehead. “Yea I’m alright” He didn’t get me.
“Thats good, really good.” What about our suspect here, is he?”
“Dead. Cyanide. Probably a capsule on a molar or something. Real old school.” Jensen looked at the body with morbid curiosity.
The police officers started taping off the crime scene and shooing away a growing crowd of curious bystanders. A forensics truck soon showed up with people in full suits who took photos of the crime scene. Jensen hid the necklace and the photo from them, but he still gave a statement on what had happened. He worried that any evidence he gave up might be destroyed or stolen, seeing as that was now a possibility. Jensen sat in the back of the forensics truck getting his bearings when the Commissioner came up to him.
“Hey Jensen, I got more information on that guy you bagged.” “His name was Anton Korbachev. Real veteran criminal, nasty guy. Wanted for 18 counts of murder, rape, armed robbery, battery, hit and run, grand theft auto, you name it. If it exists, this guy’s done it.” He held up his phone to Jensen with a mugshot of him, which immediately reminded Jensen of the tattoo he had.
“Say, what’s with that tattoo?” Jensen motioned to his head as if it wasn’t painfully obvious enough.
“It’s gang affiliated. Blood Hawks. One of the worst in this town. This was one of their head honchos, you did good work here Jensen.” He patted Jensen on the back, which did little to cheer him up. Jensen was still far from anywhere, and he had just indirectly killed the only lead he had.
“Oh one more thing.” The commissioner said to Jen before turning away. “What were you doing looking through the Rope Hero files?
Jensen stammered “I uh, um”
“Don’t play stupid with me Jen. We needed to figure out who this guy was and we saw him and you on the cameras as evidence. The curator confirmed the story too.” He turned to a police officer who handed him a yellow folder. “Just in case you were wondering, here’s the files now.” The commissioner poured out the folder on the floor and a thick stream of ash poured out onto the floor. “This Anton guy, he burned the files.”
Jensen looked up. “But, why?”
The commissioner sighed. “It doesn’t matter Jen. You should be happy! You got a real notorious criminal today, you can expect a promotion if you let all this Rope Hero stuff out of your mind. There are bigger things to focus on.” He smiled and patted Jensen on the back. “I know you’ll do the right thing.” He said, and walked off.
Something wasn’t right. Jensen knew that. Nothing made sense. Why would this criminal, especially one of his standing, just waltz into a police department and burn a case file? Furthermore, how does this happen? Jensen needed to get to the bottom of this, and he knew just the person to go to.
Chapter 3.
Jensen pulled his car into a parking lot. A tall building leaned over his car with a bright red neon sign, reading: CHANNEL 6 NEWS. Jensen locked his car and made his way inside the building. He made his way to the front desk, where the receptionist greeted him. “Hello, are you here for an appointment?”
Jensen glanced around the room uneasily and then looked towards the receptionist. “I’m looking for Charlotte, Charlotte Hansen?”
She typed a few words into a keyboard. “Ok, do you have an appointment?”
Jensen hesitated for a moment, and then flashed his police badge. “GCPD official business, I need to speak with her pertaining to a case.”
She looked at the badge worriedly and then grabbed a telephone off of her desk. “Ok, I’ll call ahead and tell her you are on your way. Her office is at the back.
“Thanks” said Jen, putting his badge back in his pocket and making his way into the heart of the building.
Beyond the lobby, Jensen was greeted by a similar chaos as the one in the police station. People were running around as if the place was on fire, screaming into phones, and typing rapidly. Jensen figured the recent chaos in the city must have spurred something of a surge in news stories. He chuckled to himself. At least someone was benefitting from this whole ordeal. He reached the back of the room and found an office with the initials “C. H.” The windows were blocked out by curtains in a similar fashion to the commissioners. He made his way inside.
“Well well, if it isn’t the detective himself. Charlotte smirked.
Jensen shut the door behind him. “Charlotte.” He sat down in his chair, which seemed to ease Charlotte a bit.
“Jesus Jen, you can’t just come in here like that, can I ask why you are even here?” She asked irritably.
“Relax Charlotte, I’m here off the books, I’m not gonna arrest you or anything, I just needed to get past the door. Otherwise i’d never get in here.”
She glared at him. “There’s a reason for that, you know.”
Jensen felt an awkward pang in his stomach and diverted his gaze from her eyes. He stared at the various magazines she had decorating the walls of her office. “CRIMINAL SYNDICATE, EXPOSED” “INSIDE INTERVIEW WITH GANGSTAR CITY’S WORST” “EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE BETWEEN THE CREPE BLAUDE WAR-AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW”.
Jensen had had a relationship with Charlotte in the past, something he’d tried to forget many times. A few years back she was a reporter, them meeting at a crime scene long ago. She was curious about corruption and crime, and unlike everyone else in the city, she took it upon herself to try and change things. Jensen fell for her instantly. They seemed perfect for each other, but as time would show, Jensen had a mistress, the sweet lips of liquor was his first love, and she made him choose between her and it. In the end though, the choice was made for him, and although it was a mutual end, they preferred not to see each other. She never lost her curious side, and she moved up in her career to an a journalist who documented the worst of the city, showing interest over her own safety sometimes. If anyone knew anything about the gang member Jen encountered, she was it.
Jensen slid a photograph across the counter. A mugshot of the man he had encountered in the alleyway. “I need to know more about this guy, specifically his gang symbol on his forehead.” he tapped on the photograph. “Can you help me out?”
Charlotte went white. “Jesus Jen I- do you know who you are messing with here?”
Jensen leaned back and smiled. “If I knew I wouldn’t be here would I?”
She didn’t reciprocate his attempt at humor and stared onward worriedly. “Jen, I can’t tell you more about these guys. They are bad men. Really bad men. They run this town, if I talk, they’ll hear us.”
He was interested now. “What do you mean? Who runs this town?”
“Look Jen, I can’t say much, but this guy you killed, he’s the right hand man to Vincent Madrazo.”
Now it was Jensen’s turn to go white. Vincent Madrazo? Of the Madrazo family? Of course he knew who that was. The Madrazos ran this town. They controlled all the gangs, had hands in all the companies, hell, they probably owned this news station. Worst of all, Jensen knew that they had eyes and ears everywhere. Anybody could have notified them of Jensen’s location. It would certainly explain how the guy got into the police station so easily without arousing suspicion, someone had to have been on the inside, infiltrated the ranks of those Jensen trusted most. But if the Madrazos were behind trying to wipe evidence of Rope Hero, then that meant…
“Everybody on the fucking floor!” All of a sudden Jensen and Charlotte’s attention was diverted to outside the office. He got on his knees and crawled over to the window and peered through the gaps in the blinds. Outside the employees were on the floor, with three men with assault rifles standing among them. Their faces were covered except for one of them, who bore a similar tattoo to the now dead Madrazo man.
The men waved their guns in the air. “We don’t want to hurt anybody here. We are just here for a police officer named Jensen. If anyone has seen him, tell us now.” After a few tense moments a man stood up and pointed towards Charlotte’s office with a shaky hand. He gulped, “I saw him go into there.”
The man smiled. “Thank you. Unfortunately, you’ve all seen my face, tattoo included, and we can’t have that.” The men levelled their assault rifles and unloaded into the crowd, their screams drowned out by the explosions of hundreds of rounds of gunfire. People tried to run off in all directions, scrambling over the living and dead alike, but found themselves all cut down like blades of grass.
Jensen grabbed Charlotte’s hand. “We need to go NOW!” They burst out the door and Jensen pulled out his pistol. A soldier noticed him and went to aim his weapon, but Jensen shot him twice in the stomach and kept running towards the door.
“You bastard! You shot Ken!” A soldier exclaimed, and fired toward Jen, who ducked just in time. Jensen and Charlotte weaved in and out between the cubicles, bullets penetrating the walls all around the, and sending papers flying into the air in mass disarray.
After a few moments, the gun fire and the screaming died down. Everyone besides the soldiers were either dead or severely wounded, and the papers flung up in the commotion settled around them. Jensen and Charlotte reached the edge of the cubicles, with an open stretch in between them and the door. “Ok, on three, we run” Jen said, peering around the cubicles once more. “One, two, thre-” Just then, a soldier came from around the corner. Jensen quickly reached up and shot the man dead, but not before the soldier unloaded into Charlotte, hitting her in the chest 5 or 6 times. Jensen grabbed Charlotte and dragged her to the door, blood pouring from her chest and leaving a trail. The final soldier made an appearance, but Jen forced him behind cover as he fired off the last of his ammo, giving him just enough time to get out the door with Charlotte.
Jensen quickly closed the door and placed a metal door over the handle, barring it from opening on the other side. He knew he had at least a minute or so till the man on the other side wisened up and went around. He then stared at Charlotte, who was leaning up against the wall clutching her chest, which was now covered completely in blood and pouring all over the floor.
“Charlotte oh god, are you okay?” Jensen was shocked, he didn’t know what to do.
Charlotte stared at him and laughed weakly, which went into a coughing fit which seemed to weaken her further. “Do I look okay Jen? You always were one for formalities…”
Jen tried to busy himself, desperately wanting to not feel so helpless in the face of his dying acquaintance. “I need to get you to a hospital, you’re bleeding all over the place.”
“No…” Charlotte coughed. “You saw those men. If they’re after you, then anyone could be with them. You take me to a hospital, they’ll figure out where you came from and take you. Then I can promise you’ll end up in a ditch somewhere. You need to get the fuck ou-” Her words morphed into a scream as her pain got worse. As the pain subsided she stared back at Jen. “Besides, you know I won’t make it to a hospital like this.”
Jen stared down at his hands, covered in her blood. Tears began to fill his eyes. “I, I feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do. I can’t take on a crime syndicate like this, look at me!”
She grabbed his hands and held them tight. “Looks can be deceiving, Jen.” With that he watched as life withdrew from her eyes. The blue in her eyes was sucked away, replaced with a dull grey. Her eyes were replaced by marbles, imitations of the real thing. It then moved down her body and into her hands, and her tight squeeze turned into a lifeless grasp around his palms. She slumped over like a sack of meat in a pool of her blood, eyes open and mouth agape. Charlotte had died.
Jen looked down at his hands. They were covered in blood. Turning them over to look into his palms, he noticed a scrap of paper glued to his hand by the coagulation of the blood. It was a hastily scribbled address with an inscription: Madrazo headquarters. Charlotte must have written it in the office and forgotten to give it to him, till now.
Jen wiped the tears from his eyes, blood smearing on his face like warpaint. He knew what he had to do now. Out of ammo and with nothing to lose, he made his way to the Madrazo headquarters.
Chapter 4
The city had become marginally worse as the days progressed. Jensen had seen a lot, and he knew Gangstar City wasn’t a nice city by any means, but even with this given, the city was clearly in a state of turmoil. He’d abandoned his car in the news station parking lot, hearing a commotion, and was making his way to the address written on the scrap of paper Charlotte had given him. He had also ditched his trench coat and hat, dead giveaways to his occupation. Given the state of the city and it’s residents, he was sure many didn’t take too kindly to cops right now.
People were rioting in the streets, dancing like tribals in the street atop flipped cars. Houses openly burned, people basking in the flames and singing hymns and other songs. Fights broke out around him as well, and he spotted several bodies littering the streets among the broken glass and filth, thoroughly picked over for anything valuable. Jensen had to make it to the address no matter what.
After walking for what felt like an hour, slinking in and out of the shadows and avoiding the gangs of opportunists, Jensen came to what appeared to be a biker bar. It was in the industrial part of the town in between some run down warehouses under a highway overpass. Jensen peered from a distance from behind a dumpster. Several bikes were parked out front, and it seemed to be packed to the brim with people, as if it were any other day. Soldiers with guns stood around the perimeter, probably Madrazo’s men. Jensen knew this is where he would find Vincent Madrazo. This is where he would end things, and make things right. For Charlotte, for himself; for Gangstar City.
Jen walked up to the bar and walked inside. The guards didn’t take notice of him, which meant they didn’t know his face. This was good, it gave Jensen the element of surprise. The bar was packed with people of all walks of life. Bikers sat at the bar discussing life. Regular people stood leaning against walls or playing pool. One man changed the song in a jukebox to some sort of heavy metal. Just then Jensen spotted a man with a madrazo tattoo head into a backroom through a door behind the bar. Bingo. That must lead to the main headquarters. Jensen had to find a way in there.
Jensen sat down at the bar in between two burly looking men. A mean looking bartender with a toothpick in his mouth went up to Jen. “Need somethin?”
He looked down at the table and slid a few dollars across the counter. “Whiskey.”
The bartender poured a whiskey in a glass for Jensen, who was staring at the man to his right. Soon enough the man noticed this and became irritated.
“See something you like, pal?”
Jensen didn’t look up from his drink and sipped slowly. Sorry, I just thought I’d let you know you got some shit all over your face? Or sorry, I guess that’s just how you look.”
The man stood up. “Do we need to take this outside?” he cracked his knuckles, anticipating a fight. Jensen downed the rest of his whiskey and stood up to face the man. “Nah, I’m all good. How about you?” In one swift movement Jensen, slammed the glass into the man’s face, glass shattering all over him and embedding itself in his eyes. Ice flew over his face and fragmented into smaller chunks as it hit the floor.
The man stammered backwards, clutching his face. “You asshole! I can’t see shit!” He swung towards Jensen blindly, who easily ducked below his strike, which landed perfectly on the man to the left of Jensen.
The other man looked at the person who just punched him. “Huh? Oh its on!” he lunged, tackling the blinded man. Soon enough friends of either man began attacking each other, which led to the whole bar erupting into a fight. People picked up anything, chairs, stools, pool cues, and began attacking each other. The Bartender grabbed a bat from below the counter and went out to settle the crowd. Jensen used this opportunity to jump the bar without being seen and slipped through the door behind the bar.
Jensen found himself in a concrete room with a few various kitchen appliances following the walls of the room. There was a single lightbulb lighting the room which flickered occasionally. He spotted a staircase which appeared to lead up to a second story. Jensen followed it up to a large doorway. It was a wooden door, big and heavy, and it had inscriptions and carvings intricately detailed adorning the door. It looked very expensive. Jensen pulled out his handgun, which looked threatening even if it didn’t have any ammo. He opened the door which revealed a massive room just as detailed as the door. Suits of medieval armor decorated the side walls and a large chandelier hung from the center of the room over a massive desk, across from which was a large leather chair. Before Jensen could take another step into the room, he felt a large force hit him over the back of the head and force him unconscious.
Jensen awoke seated in the middle of the room. He tried to get up but noticed he was strapped to the chair. Jensen looked around the room and noticed a dozen or so guards, all with the madrazo tattoos guarding the room. Finally the leather chair began to swivel around, revealing a man sitting in it. He was a big man with slick pulled back black hair and an evil looking goatee. He wore a white pinstripe suit with red buttons. His name was Vincent Madrazo.
“Well well, who do we have here?” Vincent said.
A man came out of the darkness next to Madrazo. It was none other than the police commissioner! “That’s my top detective, or rather, was my top detective, before he stuck his nose where it didn’t belong!” He went up to Jensen and slapped him across the face.
Jensen spat some blood on the floor and looked up to the commissioner with a snarl. “Why… why ally yourself with him?”
The commissioner took a step back. I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet. The Madrazos own everything. Is it really that big of a leap to assume he bribed the police too?” He looked visibly frustrated. “You could’ve been a part of this too, if you hadn’t tried to be the “good guy” and delved into the Rope Hero evidence. I kept telling you to let it go, but you just couldn’t take a hint.”
“So my predictions were right, the Madrazos did have something to do with the Rope Hero incident.” Jensen spat out.
The commissioner laughed. “Congrats, you figured it out.” He muttered, “Fucking genius…”. Everything began to make sense to Jensen. The Madrazos had control of everything in the city except for the mayor himself. They used Rope Hero, the city’s savior, to get close to him and silence him once and for all so Madrazo could be in complete power. Then they just had to get rid of the evidence. All that was left was one question.
“How.” Jensen said. “How did you get Rope Hero to do this? To betray everything he stood for?”
Madrazo smiled. “Ask him yourself.”
Just then from behind a pillar, Rope Hero appeared. He seemed even taller up close, although his suit didn’t seem to have the color it normally had. It seemed drained, washed up. He seemed tired. Rope Hero collapsed to his knees, tears formed under his mask and wet splotches became visible under his mask.
“They took my wife. I don’t know how, but they said if I did this one thing, they’d give her back to me.” He turned towards Madrazo and sniffled. “Where is she!?” he demanded, “I did as you asked! Where is she?”
Vincent Madrazo stared at him. “You did good, real good. You secured for me great power, something I could never have done without your help. Now I just need one more thing from you, to clear up loose ends.”
“Anything..” Rope Hero despaired.
Madrazo smiled. “Kill the detective. Then you may see your wife.”
Rope hero stood up, and walked closer to Jensen. “I’m sorry man, I have to, I need to see my wife.” The tears were visible in his eyes. “Please, don’t scream.”
“Wait!” Jensen shouted. There was one final piece Jensen connected. The necklace and the photo. It didn’t make sense then but it did now. He threw the photo and the necklace onto the floor at the feet of Rope Hero. “They’re lying to you, Rope Hero, she’s already dead. They killed your wife.”
Rope Hero picked up the necklace and held it in his hands. He stared at the photograph, possibly the last photo left of her before she died. “No, this can’t be…” Rope Hero threw his hands over his head as if shaking out a bad dream. He then turned angrily towards Madrazo, who, for the first time in his life, looked intimidated. “You promised, you wouldn’t hurt her…”
“Guards! Shoot him, or something!” Madrazo scrambled to get out of his chair but he fell onto the floor. Just then the guards opened fire on Rope Hero, but he was too fast. He swung around the room and dismantled the guards one after the other. He took them down one by one with extreme lethality then he normally used. He was fueled by a primordial anger. In his haste he took several bullets, but his super strength and adrenaline kept him fighting. In a matter of moments the room fell silent, and only Rope Hero, Jensen, Madrazo, and the commissioner were alive.
“I can’t die! I have a family!” Screamed the commissioner, who darted towards the window, crashing through it.
“So did I” muttered Rope Hero, who was covered completely in blood. He slung a rope at the commissioner and caught him before he flew out the window and pulled him towards himself. Then, with one motion, he snapped the commissioner’s neck, who’s lifeless body then thumped to the floor.
Rope Hero turned towards Vincent Madrazo. “You took everything from me, now I will take everything from you..” He picked up Madrazo and tied a web rope around his neck. Then he threw Madrazo out the window and pulled, catching him on the edge and hanging him over the edge, snapping his neck and leaving him for all to see.
Rope Hero untied Jensen and then slouched down up against the desk, looking out the now broken window. It appeared his injuries had caught up to him.
“You there, detective, can you pull up my mask, I can’t breathe.”
Jensen ran over and pulled off his mask. Rope Hero coughed and spat blood onto the floor. It was immediately apparent to Jensen this was similar to what had happened with Charlotte. Jensen slumped down next to Rope Hero.
“I have nothing, my friends, my lover, my idol, they are all dead.”
Rope Hero looked up at him and put his hand on Jensen’s shoulder. The sunrise shown in between the buildings onto Jen and Rope Hero’s face. “Our greatest ally” Rope Hero stated, “is not in never falling, but in rising up every time we fall”
“Emerson.” Jensen said.
“As long as the sun rises, people will keep on living. New experiences will present itself, and for every bad one, so lies the good ones not far from. As long as that sun rises, people like us need to fight for what is right.” He coughed. “My time is up, I have done all I can. Now, it’s your turn. Don’t focus on the darkness, Jen. Wait for the sunrise”.
-Fin.